Veterans Understand Mass Shootings

Mental Illness

People that commit mass shootings are mentally ill. Most of the mentally ill pose a threat only to themselves but others pose a real threat to us too. As of this day, there are no cures for mental illness. We also refuse to lock them down in hospitals or in prisons permanently. So, unless a cure happens or lock down happens, we’ll be living with mass shootings.
Some veterans have been in life threatening situations that forced them to kill or be killed. When a bullet goes by or some other threat puts everything in play, the attackers mental state is irrelevant. Those who survive understand and appreciate what it took in some situations to keep on living

In days long gone by, I routinely encountered my fair share of criminals and those clinically categorized as mentally ill. My mother was in and out of mental hospitals for most of her life. Sometimes the court released her, she escaped or at some facilities the staff got tired and let her leave. When criminals and the mentally Ill are locked up, it’s often impossible to distinguish between the two. They’re both sometimes capable of flipping that switch. So, what can you do? What are the options?

This old veteran isn’t here to talk about criminals today. There’s plenty of time for that but mass shootings are the topic for this page. You’ve probably heard that medications are available for mental illness. While that’s true, there are no medications that fix the illness. Medications only sometimes help to control the symptoms. Some patients take their meds in the hospital and some refuse. In most places under most circumstances, you can’t force it on them. After they get released and they’re felling pretty good, they often stop taking the meds.

You can: Standby and do nothing. Law enforcement might put them in jail or maybe they’ll get killed on the street.
You can: Repeatedly make calls to Social Workers for mental health interventions or Crisis Teams.
You can: Hope and pray for a positive outcome so they don’t commit mass shootings, take their own life or both.